Day 1: Arrive at Entebbe international airport and transfer to your hotel. If your flight was in the Morning, go birding at The Uganda Wildlife Education center (UWEC) home to captive animals. This has attracted over 170 species of wild birds, 10 species of Weavers such as the rare Northern Masked Weaver, Northern Brown Throated weaver,Golden Backed, Grosbeak, Black Necked, Baglafect etc, 5 species of flycatchers, Crested shrike flycatcher, Lead colored, Swamp flycatcher, African paradise, Red bellied etc, raptors such as the Gabber Goshawk, small banded snake Eagle, African Goshawk, African Fish Eagle, African Hobby etc and many more species including captive animals. Proceed to Botanical gardens for another birding experience. Have lunch at Botanical beach hotel in Entebbe. Return to Dinner and Overnight. Full Board.
Day 2: Early breakfast and transfer to the Heritage trail, a 10 minutes drive from the Airport. Species that may be seen include Mustached Warbler, Brown Crowned Tchargra, Brown Twin spot, Violet backed Starlings, Black Cuckoo Shrike, Red Shouldered Cuckoo Shrike, Yellow bill, Great sparrow hawk, Short Toed Snake Eagle, Southern Banded Snake Eagle and many more. Proceed to Lutembe Beach for lunch. After lunch, take on a boat in such for the papyrus Canary, Papyrus Gonolek, the thousands of Grey Headed Gulls, White Winged black Terns and continue birding the evening. Return to Dinner and Overnight at your hotel. Full Board.
Day 3: After an early breakfast, proceed to Mabamba swamps another Important Bird Area (IBA) with a population of about 5 Shoebills. Here most of the birding is done canoeing. Other species to be seen may include African water Rail, long Toed Plover, Squacco Heron, Goliath, Purple, Grey and Black Headed Herons, Pygmy Goose, Yellow Billed Duck, White Faced Whistling Duck, Swamp Moorhen, Allen’s Gallinule, Black Crake, African Jacana etc Sitatunga Antelope (swamp Antelope) and many more. En route to Kampala stop by another swamp this may reveal Papyrus Gonolek, White winged Warbler, Yellow Crowned Bishop, Weyns Weaver, and many more. Have a packed lunch and continue birding the evening through. Dinner and Overnight in Kampala. Full Board.
Day 4: Early breakfast and transfer to Mabira forest for mostly forest birding about an hour drive from Kampala. Species of birdlife such as Toro Greenbul, Yellow whiskered Greenbul, Leaf love, Forest Robin, Buff spotted Woodpecker, Grey spotted Woodpecker, White spotted Fluff tail, Red headed Blue Bill, Yellow spotted Barbet, Grey throated Barbet, Yellow Rumped Tinker bird, Red headed Malimbe Yellow Throated Tinker bird, Blue Breasted Kingfisher, African Pygmy, Shining blue, Woodland Kingfishers, Violet backed Starling Red tailed Ant Thrush, Chin spot Batis, Weyn’s Weavers, Banded Wattle Eye, Chestnut Wattle Eye, Brown capped, Yellow mantled, Black Billed, Purple headed Starling and many more fascinating species. Have a picnic lunch and continue birding the evening. Return to Kampala for Dinner and Overnight. Full Board.
Day 5: After an early breakfast, transfer to Murchison Falls National Park that boost over 450 species. It is a four to five hour drive from Kampala we stop on the way for a ‘leg stretch’ which may reveal Dark Chanting Goshawk, Compact Weaver, Olive bellied, Bronze and Copper Sunbirds, Saddle billed Stork etc. Have a stop-over in Masindi for lunch and thereafter continue birding up to the Top of the mighty falls where we see the falls drop 45 meters and forces its way through a 7 meter gorge. Rock Particles, a mixed flock of swifts, Africa Pied Wagtail, reptiles such as Red headed Agama continue birding to your accommodation. Settle in for Dinner and Overnight at the Paraa Safari Lodge. Full Board.
Day 6: Early morning breakfast and embark on a game drive. Species such as Chestnut capped Weaver, Common Gringo, White Fronted Black Chat, Bruce’s Green Pigeon, Black billed Dove, Spotted morning Thrush, Silver bird, Carmine Bee-Eater, Red Throated, Swallow Tailed Bee-Eater, Namaqua Dove, Viniferous Dove Isabelline Saddle bill, Grey crowned Cranes at the Delta, Northern Wheatears Shoebills and other game like Jackson’s Hartebeest, Roth child’s Giraffe, Cape Buffalo, Elephant, Silver Backed Jackals, Lions, Orib, Kobs and many more. Return for lunch. Relax and take on a boat launch to the bottom of the falls encountering huge Nile Crocodiles, Hippos, and game drinking water birds such as Lesser Jacana, White necked stork Fulvous whistling Ducks, a variety of Herons, Rock Pranticoles Spur Winged Plover, Egyptian Plover White necked stork Water Thick-Knee etc. Return to Dinner and Overnight. Full Board.
Day 7: Have an early morning breakfast and transfer to Kibale stopping briefly to bird along the turn to Sambiya River Lodge Species such as Martial Eagle, Tawny Eagle, Grey Hornbill, Grey Headed Kingfisher, Grey Kestrel, Senegal Coucal, Helmeted and Crested Guinea fowl, may be seen. Embark on a primate walk in the Kanio Pabidi forest a sector of the Budongo forest. Chimps, Red tailed and blue monkeys, Black and White Colobus, and lots of Olive Baboons may be seen. Birds like Black billed Turacco, White thighed Hornbills Great blue and Ross’s Turaccos, Afep Pigeons, Narina’s Trogon African Green Pigeons, Proceed for lunch in Masindi and continue to Fort Portal for Dinner and Overnight. Full Board.
Day 8: After breakfast leave for the Park. Go birding in the forest, watch the Red-chested Flufftail, White-naped Pigeon, Green-brested Pitta, African Pitta, Joyful Greenbul, Grey-winged Robin, Abyssinian Ground Thrush, White-bellied Crested Flycather, Grey-throated Flycatcher Masked, red-winged Francolin and Black-capped Apalises, Uganda Woodland Warbler, Chestnut-winged Starling, Orange-tufted and Tiny Sunbirds, Grey-headed Olive-back. Other wildlife expected to be seen in the Park include primates like Olive Baboon, Grey-cheeked Mangabey, Guereza Colobus, L'Hoest's Gentle ( Blue) and Red-tailed Monkeys is more likely to be found in open areas adjacent to the forest. You may find evidence of Bush Pig and Buffalos along the trails, whilst Bushbuck, Blue, Harvey's, Elephant and Peter's Duickers are other shy inhabitants of the forest interior. After lunch go for a swamp walk in the Bigodi swamp which is manned by the local people. Full Board.
Day 9: Drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park. Birding life here includes: African Mourning Dove, Swamp Fly-catcher, Grey-capped Warbler, Grey-headed Kingfisher The beautiful Black-headed Gonolek, Gabon Collard Pranticles, Pin-tailed Whyda Martial Eagle and Slender-tailed Nightjars, Great and Long-tailed Cormorants, Black-rumped Buttonquail, Shoebill Stork, African Open-billed Stork, African Fish Eagle, Common Squaco Heron, Malachite and Pied Kingfishers, African Skimmer, Verreaux's Eagle-Owl, Black Bee-eater, White-tailed Lark, African Jacana, Great white and Pink-backed Pelicans, White-winged Warbler, Papyrus Gonolek, Papyrus Canary.
The Kazinga channel is a magnet for water birds. A launch cruise reveals species such as; Great-white and Pink-backed Pelicans, Great and Long-tailed Cormorants, Common Squaco Heron, African open-billed Stork, African Fish Eagle, Black Crake, African Jacana, Water Thick-knee, Spur-winged and African Watt led Plovers, White-faced Whistling and Knob-billed Ducks, Malachite and Pied kingfishers, White-faced Whistling and Knob-billed Ducks, Swamp flycatchers and Yellow backed Weavers are all common.
Numbers of migrants peak in February and March and are nothing short of spectacular with hundreds of thousands of White-winged Terns hovering over the water, millions of common sand Martins and Yellow -wagtails roosting in reed-beds and lesser numbers of paratactic waders such as the Ringed Plover, Black-tailed Godwit, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpipers, Common Snipe, Marsh, common and Wood sandpipers, Spotted Redshank and common Greenshank feeding along the marshy fringes.
A number of national rarities have been recorded from the hippo wallows along the channel including Eurasian Widgeon, Northern Pochard Common Teal, Mongolian Plover and Jack Snipe. Hundreds of African Skimmers may be seen roosting on sandbars near the entrance to Lake Edward but are migrants from southern tropics and usually present only from December to May. The Kazinga channel may also be viewed from the Katunguru Bridge on the main Mbarara-Kasese road where Terns, Greater Swamp and winged Warblers, Pelicans, Northern Pochard Winding and Caruthers's Cist colas and Papyrus Gonolek may be seen. Full Board.
Day 11: Gorilla tracking is a major tourist attraction in Bwindi. Four gorilla groups are currently available to be visited on daily basis Six permits per day are sold for each of these groups at UWA Headquarters in Kampala. Book at least 3-6 months in advance to ensure that requested dates are available. Gorilla Tracking in Bwindi can be strenuous, therefore ensure physical fitness. Bring jungle boots and rain jackets because the park is often wet.
Your gorilla tracking experience starts at 8:30 am local time and occasionally lasts the whole day! For Conservation reasons, visits to the gorillas are tightly controlled. The following rules apply and must be strictly adhered to: - Bwindi is the Bird watchers haven! It holds 348 species of birds and contains 90% of all Albertine rift Endemics such as; the Rusty-faced woodland, Short-tailed Warbler, Gruer's Rush Warbler, Bar-tailed Trogon, Wilcock's Honey-guide, White-tailed Blue Monarch, Yellow-eyed black Fly-catcher, Kivu Ground Thrush, Dusky Crimson Wing, among others, difficult or impossible to see in any other part of East Africa. Full Board.
Day 13: After breakfast set off for Lake Mburo N.P. The park is only 260km2 being the smallest of the Uganda’s savanna National Parks. Its mosaic habitat, dry hillside, rocky outcrops, bushes thickets, open and wooded savanna forests, lakes and swamps are home to a surprising diversity of plants and animals. The park has about 313 different bird species including the rare Shoebill stork and White-winged Warbler. Other species to lookout for are; Crested Francolin, Emerald-spotted Wood Dove, Greenwood Hoopoe Brown Parrot, Barefaced Go-away bird, common Quails, Black-billed Barbet, Blue-napped Moosebird, Red necked Spur Lilac-breasted Roller, African-grey Hornbill, Nubian Woodpecker, Trilling Cist cola a drive towards Rwonyo camp may reveal. Coqui Francolin, Red necked spur fowl, Black Bellied Bustard, Temminck’s Courser, African-wattled Plover Rufus napped and Flappet larks, Rufus chested Swallow, Yellow-throated Long claw and Southern Red Bishop.
Activities: Forest walk - Rubanga Forest This forest offer a variety of conducive habitat for birds therefore a very attractive place for bird watchers with over 40 bird species recorded. Boat trips The lake is rich with a diversity of animal and plant species which can only be viewed clearly if you take a boat trip. The crocodiles, Hippopotamuses and birds like Black Crake ,Pelicans, Fish Eagle, Heron, Cormorant. The duration of each boat cruise is negotiable with the park management.
Day 14: Drive to Kampala and Airport for your flight.
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